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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Buried in the Parking Lot

Today, I was running errands in Somerville when I came across the Milk Row Cemetery on Somerville Ave. Established in 1804, this graveyard holds the remains of several members of the Tufts family, a British soldier killed in the Battle of Milk Row (19 April 1775), and prominent citizens of Somerville, along with the Somerville Civil War soldiers monument. Many of the headstones seem to be in rough shape, but the city has a plan for preservation.

The Milk Row Cemetery is not exactly in the Market Basket supermarket parking lot, but it is very, very close.

It reminded me of a link I ran across a few months ago — I can't remember whether I posted it back then. Back in October, Wesley Treat's Roadside Resorts posted a collection of photos of cemeteries that have been swallowed up by parking lots. I haven't seen any of these in person, though I might stop by next time I find myself in New Jersey or Long Island. I wonder if there are any in New England.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I used to shop at that Market basket all the time, and noticed that there was a cemetery next to the parking lot. It did not seem as surrounded by pavement & buildings as it might look from the aerial view.

there is a tiny cemetery really close to the Maine Turnpike somewhere near the york/wells/kennebunk exits, on the northbound side, which when I was growing up seemed close to the highway but now that they've widened the highway it is nearly in the breakdown lane.

Here is a write-up about he impact of the Maine Turnpike widening project and that small cemetery. "A cemetery, visible from the northbound Maine Turnpike and located along the highway in Kennebunk, became a landmark for millions of residents and visitors to Maine. The new lane widening came to within 3 feet of the edge of the cemetery. Many Turnpike travelers wanted to know what, if any, impact the widening would have on this piece of history. The Authority took pains to install guardrail and seasonal chain link fencing during the winter to protect it from snow plowing operations. New granite posts were added where needed, the headstones were treated with a weather proofing material and the general area was spruced up as part of the project.

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